Annual Wine And Cheese

On March 3, in the Davis Centre at the University of Waterloo, wine and cheese were not the only awards given to attendees of our annual event. In fact, as president, I was fortunate enough to present awards of recognition to many deserving people-both members and non-members. Although I can't possibly report on all the lively conversations that took place around the room, I can tell you about the various awards and who received them.

Heidi Thiessen Memorial Award

This award was renamed in memory of Heidi Thiessen, who passed away many years ago, and who had a strong focus on initiative and encouragement for young writers. Unfortunately, because Heidi passed away so young, many of us never got to know her. Since Margie Yundt worked with Heidi, we asked her to share some of her memories so that we too could get to know Heidi. Here is a short excerpt of what Margie said:

Heidi was an integral part of the STC Southwestern Ontario Chapter, and a mentor for young writers in our community. She was a University of Waterloo alumnus, and always had a smile for anyone she met, which made her a natural as our Membership Manager, way back in the early days of our chapter. Her warmth lit up the room, and her life lessons could fill a book. Unfortunately, Heidi never had the chance to write that book, because breast cancer took away her vibrant life way before her time.

However, we have kept her memory and legacy alive through the Heidi Thiessen Memorial Award. This annual scholarship is available to any third or fourth year student in a full-time program at the University of Waterloo, Wilfrid Laurier University, the University of Guelph, or the University of Western Ontario. To apply for the award, students must submit a cover letter, their academic transcript, and two technical writing samples (for example, work reports, manuals, quick reference guides, magazines, and research papers). A panel of judges reviews all parts of the entry and then decides on a 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place winner. The following are our winners this year:

1st Ivan Merrow University of Waterloo $1,000

2nd Lindsay Brown University of Guelph $500

3rd Leanna Dunn University of Western Ontario $200

These winners also received student memberships with the STC.

Distinguished Chapter Service Award (DCSA)

This award acknowledges the work of those chapter members who repeatedly provide exemplary service to the Society through their chapter activities. All chapter members are eligible for this award, with the exception of current voting members of the chapter executive council. When nominating a member, the chapter considers length of chapter membership, consistency of service over the time of chapter membership, and variety of service. Having met and exceeded these requirements, this year's recipient is Margie Yundt.

Margie has been an asset to our chapter in many other ways:

Competition Committee 1997/1998 - 1 year
Employment Manager 1997/1998 - 1 year
Newsletter Committee 2001/2008 - 6 years
Management SIG Co-ordinator 2004/2005 - 1 year
Newsletter Editor 2005/2007 - 2 years
Webmaster 2006/2008 - 2 years

Her strong work ethic and her sense of humour are a winning combination, which is why the citation on her award is: "For your 'can do' attitude, your sense of fun, and your continued support of the Southwestern Ontario Chapter STC."

Technical Publications and Online Communications Competitions

This year we held our competition in co-operation with the Toronto Chapter STC. For entrants, this competition is the opportunity to receive feedback about their documentation, and to possibly win an award. For judges, this is the opportunity to see what types of documentation are currently being used and to provide both positive and developmental feed about each entry. The category of the entry, for example, manual, newsletter, quick reference guide, tutorial, and online help determines what criteria judges use. For example, an entry might be evaluated based on content and organization, copy editing, visual design and production, and navigation.

Unlike other awards, the entries are not compared to each other to determine a first, second, and third place winner. In the Technical Publications and Online Communications competitions, there are multiple award levels and more than one person can win that award. Entries can receive any of these awards: Merit, Excellence, Distinguished, and Best of Show. Those entries that receive a Distinguished Award are forwarded to the International level, where a new panel of judges evaluates them.

The following are this year's winners at our chapter-level competitions:

Award Entrant Company Documentation

Distinguished and Best of Show Chris Reeves and Fran Hensler ANSYS ANSYS Advantage

Merit (2) Peter Newell Campana Point-Of-Sale User Guide

Staff Manager Scheduling User and System Administrator's Guide

Merit Tina Chonko PEER Group PEER Factory Acceptance Tester Online Help

Associate Fellow

Last, but certainly not least, is an honour that you must be nominated to receive. The rank of associate fellow is given to a senior member who has attained distinction in the field of technical communication. Any voting STC member can submit a completed Nomination for Associate Fellow form to the Associate Fellows Nominating Committee. This committee (composed of fellows and associate fellows), reviews the form and determines if they want to nominate the member for the honour. As a result of this process, Patrick Hofmann has now received the rank of Associate Fellow.

Patrick and I worked together for several months to complete the nomination form. This was no small feat. Part of the task was to list Patrick's accomplishments in the areas of conference keynotes and workshops, media interviews and articles, and academic lectures and seminars. The list was long: 36 conference keynotes and workshops, nine media interviews and articles, as well as academic lectures and seminars at seven educational facilities.

You can see Patrick in person and learn from him at our Education Days, where Peter Vogel will present on May 11, and Patrick will present on May 12. For details about our Education Days, visit http://www.stc-soc.org/education/education_2009.php.

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